In the late 1960s musical influences outside of Brazil like Rock were having their influence upon Brazilian music and musicians, who, while remaining faithful to Brazilian rhythms and styles, were happy to experiment with new styles and instrumentation. So Brazilian popular music began to evolve into a wonderful hybrid of Samba, Bossa Nova, Jazz, Rock and regional traditional musics. The term used to encapsulate all these styles became MPB, Musica Popular Brasileira. The first stars of MPB emerged during a time of political repression by the government and sometimes suffered censorship and even exile. They include singer-songwriters like Chico Buarque , Caetano Veloso, and Gilberto Gil. Chico Buarque is a singer, songwriter, and whose music is very samba-influenced. Caetano Veloso's lyrics are very poetic and his music is always expanding musical boundaries in Brazil. He is adored by several generations of Brazilian listeners.
Singer Milton Nascimento has yet another distinctive style influenced partly by the colonial region he is from, the state of Minas Geraes, and has a vocal range and depth of feeling in his music that transcends language barriers. Ivan Lins' and Djavan's music has a pop/jazz feel. Jorge Ben and particularly Gilberto Gil have a lot of African elements in their music.

Bossa Nova must be understood against the backdrop of traditional Brazilian popular music. It did not replace the traditional samba but offered an alternative. In the late 1950s, the working class and slum dwellers consumed carnival type of sambas emphasizing percussive accompaniment. For the middle and upper-class listening public, the dominant form of song was the ballad form known as the samba-canção, very similar to the Hispanic bolero in musical texture and lyrical outlook. Compositions typically had a simple, catchy tune with standard harmony. Vocal performance was at the centre, most texts were sentimental and frequently melodramatic.

Prior to the British invasion by the Beatles and the development of the Motown sound that eventually swept the record industry, the bossa nova emerged as a new musical direction in both jazz and popular genres. Its arrival in the USA can be ascribed to the interest and promotion of sincere musicians. In 1961, guitarist Charlie Byrd made a Good Will tour to Brazil and experienced Bossa Nova in loco. He was taken by the music and recorded an album with Stan Getz. This album raced up the charts and began an immediate wave of imitations. Other jazz musicians including saxophonists Coleman Hawkins and Sonny Rollins and flutist Herbie Mann, began making bossa nova recordings. By the mid-1960s, at its peak, bossa nova compositions including Jobim's "Girl From Ipanema" and "Wave" had become standard within the jazz repertoire. Today, a new generation of Brazilian musicians continue to weave floating melodies and hypnotic grooves founded in the bossa nova style, and some artists even add hip hop, drum 'n' bass beats and LP samples to the traditional bossa nova sound.